Man blames seven-year-old girl in sex attack case

London, July 21 (IANS) A 61-year-old accused in a sex attack case in Britain escaped scot-free after he told a court his alleged seven-year-old victim pinned him down and forced her tongue into his mouth, a media report said.

John Thompson claimed the girl was “flirtatious” with him and was coming on to him before the assault, The Sun reported.

The judge at the Teesside Crown Court said the man was “a potentially high risk” to girls but that giving him a suspended sentence was the only way he could receive treatment.

The decision provoked outrage from children’s charities, many of which said Thompson should not have been allowed back on the streets.

Peter Saunders, chief executive of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, said it was “outrageous”.

Thompson told police: “I knew it was wrong, but somehow our mouths became open. I could not push her off.”

He said he regretted it and that nothing like that will ever happen again.

Police were called in January 2011 when the girl’s grandmother found out about Thompson’s inappropriate behaviour.

Children’s charity Kidscape said it was “absolutely unacceptable for a 61-year-old man to claim that a seven-year-old girl made sexual advances to him that he could not prevent”.

The man avoided jail after the judge was told that locking him up would punish his disabled partner, for whom he is a full-time carer.

Thompson admitted a charge of sexual assault and was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with probation service supervision.

He was also put on the sex offenders’ register, banned from having unsupervised contact with girls under 16 and ordered to attend a treatment programme.